Here's an e-mail response to the L.A. Times from Scott Schenter, the Santa Monica businessman accused in a Times article of allegedly providing tailback Joe McKnight with an SUV. We are publishing Schenter's email, which was sent Saturday morning, in full and in its original form:
Mr. [Lance] Pugmire [co-writer of the article in question]:
I was very insulted in that you co-authored an article titled, "USC investigating tailback Joe McKnight's use of vehicle" and "rushed" to publish it without comments from myself. My personal life was put in the open without the opportunity to comment (I had to disclose to my wife of the other cars I have purchased or helped buy for other women). I will make a few comments and will also be forwarding my comments to Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times, and other news organizations that I feel should hear from me so they may publish or have it for their records.
I am in Johannesburg, South Africa finalizing a major business deal (more on this later) but the internet is very expensive to use and I had meetings scheduled all week with no time to check the internet. You sent me a list of questions to answer at December 17, 2009 at 10:25 PM and on December 18, 2009 at 6:03 PM you sent me an email saying, " The Times will publish the story regarding your connection to USC running back Joe McKnight in a few hours". I had no chance to respond. In the article you said, "Reached by e-mail this week, Schenter was sent a list of questions regarding his businesses, McKnight and the Land Rover. Since then, he has not responded to multiple requests for answers."
I also want to put on record that I have a strong negative bias toward your paper as I have never forgot the "hatchet job" your staff did in the early 1990's on the Washington Huskies football program and the horrendous journalism your staff did back then. I still have one of my pride possessions parked at Santa Monica Beach, (you didn't see it when you visited my home), my Washington Husky Marching Band Van. There aren't too many of those parked at Santa Monica Beach? I used to have season tickets to the Washington Huskies for more than 15 years. I have never had USC season tickets or have never received tickets from any players or coaches from USC. I lost a bet from a girl from USC and have a "W" permanent tattoo on my ankle because of it. "W" stands for Washington and the Washington Huskies are my passion.
More information:
Johanna Michelle Beltran is a long time family friend and is an employee of Smart Bullets Inc. Smart Bullets Inc. has a patent to turn nuclear wastes into valuable metals, eliminating nuclear wastes and actually turning it into usable materials. The company also, called Smart Bullets because a protein (monoclonal antibody) attaches to a medical isotope (radiation) and attaches itself to the cancer cell and shoots off the radiation only attacking the cancer cell without hurting the healthy cells (this being a smart bullet)! My father, Dr. Robert Schenter, ex-director of National Association of Cancer Patients is the chief scientist and world authority on medical isotope production. We are looking to use this technology for AIDS/HIV, arthritis, cancer, and other diseases. Also, did you see my patent on Actinium-225?
I am the owner of the Land Rover because Michelle's parents couldn't qualify for the loan. It is her car. She makes the payments and she is responsible for insurance. The payments are a little over $500/month (not a big amount).
What is my job? This one really showed your research capabilities! I am an entrepreneur that has his hands in numerous businesses and investment opportunities. My background is in Finance and Marketing. I am in South Africa closing a deal with major corporate sponsorship for the use of my "motion media" signage for Busivision (www.busivision.com). We just signed two huge contracts to distribute the signs in South Africa. The companies you mentioned in the article are two companies that I registered in May 2008, USC Marketing (United States China Marketing) and Brighter. What about Lumabright? I have not done anything with them. Teslavision also was a past partnership. These businesses are in the marketing business but I have nothing to do with agents, marketing players, or representing athletes. I have no experience in this business. What is my real job? I currently work for the Los Angeles County Assessor's office for over 21 years real estate appraising high value properties. You couldn't find that on the internet. I would rather be known for my expertise in my marketing and finance ventures (there are more) but my current job is working for Los Angeles County, I don't like to admit it but it is.
I own so many website domains that I only purchased www.4joemcknight.com (didn't renew) because I thought it was clever along with the many other ones I own/owned. Michelle Beltran knew nothing of this website. I also have uscmarketing.com, uclalove.com (where's the Kevin Love article), stanfordindians.com, 24kobe.com, airkobe.com, trumpcancer.com, shaqcancer.com, caltechbeavers.com, uscromeo.com, and for Scott Wolf, amandapflugrad.com.
I feel this is a start in communication and I hope someone will print my response in its whole. I get back on Tuesday and hope a decision on Joe McKnight is not rushed to judgment until everything is heard. Please respect my personal life and everyone involved.
Scott Schenter
This information needs to get published in the media, the LA Times needs to make a huge public apology for their lack of professioanl ethics and poor research, and if indeed the accusations are false, USC's Athletic Dept needs to get in touch with ESPN and have them pull the news brief on the Joe McNight story, and retract their reporting error.
Just another indication that the LA Times is not a professionally run news organization and that their editor will do anything to make a buck, even at the expense of improper and inaccurate reporting.
Geez folks, where's the integrity these days?
I did a little research on the Internet and it looks like a lot of what Mr. Schenter states about himself is true. For instance:
Here is an article on the nuclear isotope treatment that he was referring to, which mentions his father, Robert Schenter.
Here is his patent.
You can see that teslavision.com is registered to a Ken Katzaroff who is Director of Business Development at TeslaVision and a UW grad. James Katzaroff (brother, father) is CEO of a company called AMIC, where Robert Schenter is the Chief Science Officer.
Scott Schenter does own uscmarketing.com, airkobe.com, trumpcancer.com, shaqcancer.com, caltechbeavers.com, uscromeo.com, and amandapflugrad.com.
So, what does this mean? Well, it means that parts of the letter to the LA Times are verifiably true, but none of these are really relevant to the matter at hand.
But, let's assume that the rest of the story is true. That he did buy this SUV for JM's girlfriend, so it's basically her car. If she let's JM drive it once in a while, is that a violation? I guess it probably is technically, but it seems kind of ridiculous. The same thing happened a few years ago to Jeff Trepanier, when his fiance's father, who was a volleyball coach (I think) at USC, lent him some money. He ended up marrying her to satisfy the NCAA. Maybe that's what JM should do ... or maybe he should have done that a while ago, considering she's his "baby mama" :-).
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That is a good thought about tipping the maid. I always wonder how exactly to do that, however. Once I was staying in a hotel with my mother. We forgot to leave a tip in the room, so she gave it to the bell captain, who assured us that he would pass it along. My mother thought to mention it to someone at the front desk, who said they would make absolutely sure that the tip got where it should be going, since the person my mother gave it to had pocketed others’ tips before.